They say that the hits from your early 20s bring back the strongest nostalgia and, if so, I’m pretty damn glad I spent those delicate years in the 1990s; the music from that decade was something else entirely. Take the pioneering thrash-metal bands of the 1980s, for instance – by the mid-1990s, most of them had drastically changed their style. Sometimes it paid off by way of scoring a hit album, as METALLICA did with their so-called “Black Album” in 1991. Sometimes it didn’t go down so well with the metal crowd – like when METALLICA tried to further overhaul their sound again, some 5 years later, with their highly controversial sixth studio album “Load.” For many, it represented a load of…well, you know what. Released on June 4th, 1996, on Elektra Records in the United States and Vertigo, internationally, the album marked not only the worst METALLICA offering thus far for their longtime fans, but also the worst album ever released by a pedigree thrash-metal outfit; even though the album graced us with a few hits, actually, it was generally dubbed a mediocre affair, at best, and an incoherent mess of self-indugence from a band going through a mid-life crisis in their early 30s, at worst. To give credit where it’s due, even at its most lacklustre and lukewarm, “Load” stands light-years ahead of that sonic atrocity METALLICA released in collaboration with Lou Reed some 15 years later. Compared to their prior achievements, this endeavor did not make much of an impression at first, but time has treated it quite well, actually.
The album kicks off on a rather firm footing. “Ain’t My Bitch” is a beefy riffer and works brilliantly as an opener. Sure, the riffs aren’t just as memorable as those iconic riff-origamis from the previous classic albums, but still, the album is set for a good start. What follows is not that bad either. The second track, “2×4,” is a slow-grinding riffage, following in the footsteps of songs such as “Harvester of Sorrow” and “The Thing That Should Not Be” – again, it’s just not quite as memorable as these old bangers. These first two album tracks could have been leftovers from the Black Album sessions, tracks that just couldn’t fit in that selection due to the vinyl era constraints; there was only so much you could squeeze onto a vinyl side back in the day – and that monolith classic was a double LP already. “Black Album” came out when vinyl still ruled, “Load” was released during the transition period when most people were already fast getting rid of their LPs in favor of the CD format. The new format had no constraints regarding the album length, which probably factored in why so many mid-to-late-1990s albums were stuffed with way too many songs. The track count of “Load” is fourteen, and quite frankly, the band could have saved a track or two for B-sides and rarities – the album fills the entire CD space of 73 minutes. That’s quite a lot.
Speaking of which, “The House Jack Built” is where the album begins to lose its plot a bit. I mean, when METALLICA toned down their exuberant thrash riffs for the Black Album, it was considered brave, laudable even, unless you were hopelessly stuck in the 1980s. Here, however, all the country and blues influences and whatnot toned their game down a few too many notches for many. I was never too big on their early thrash sound as my entry point had been “…And Justice For All.” So, I didn’t have issues with this album not sounding like a thrash-metal affair at all, but these songs certainly weren’t a match for those bangers on the Black Album, not by a long shot. Take “Mama Said,” for instance – a straight-up country ballad on a METALLICA album?! And it was not even outlaw country, nor did it ooze the punk-ass attitude of some of those Johnny Cash classics! Aww, c’mon, you dudes! Still, the best tracks of this album turned out to be good enough to keep the whole endeavor above water.
By the best tracks, I obviously mean songs such as “Until It Sleeps,” “King Nothing,” and “Hero of the Day.” Depending on the day, I might include “Bleeding Me” in this list as well. These are all pretty good, hard-rocking bangers. Well, yeah, they aren’t thrash metal, but as far as I can recall, thrash metal was not exactly in vogue around 1996, anyway. For the life of me, I cannot recall anyone making that “good old-fashioned thrash metal” at the time. Then again, I wasn’t keeping an eye on the underground scene, but all the so-called major players were busy flirting with groove metal, grunge, and hard rock. In this respect, “Load” captured the Zeitgeist of the mid-1990s down to a tee. The music scene of the 1990s, at least the first half of the decade, was remarkably experimental in nature, regardless of genre. So, I reckon “Load” was an album that METALLICA needed to get out of their system in order to evolve. It certainly wasn’t the album we expected from the band. That said, had these guys ever taken a cue from the whims of their fans, we would have merely received the sixth iteration of “Kill ‘Em All” by the time this album came out. Plus, what often gets overlooked when everybody’s too busy shitting on this album is the fact that “Load” has some of the best vocal performances by James Hetfield as well as some of the most inspired guitar solos by Kirk Hammett. Sure, this particular installment in the band’s discography may not be their best calling card, but on the other hand, it’s nowhere near as awful as “Lulu” either. So, there’s that.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- Ain’t My Bitch
- 2×4
- The House Jack Built
- Until It Sleeps
- King Nothing
- Hero of the Day
- Bleeding Me
- Cure
- Poor Twisted Me
- Wasting My Hate
- Mama Said
- Thorn Within
- Ronnie
- The Outlaw Torn
Lineup
James Hetfield – vocals, guitars
Kirk Hammett – lead guitars
Lars Ulrich – drums
Jason Newsted – bass
Label
Elektra / Vertigo
